Fiction

When Oris Aigbokhaevbolo declared Nigerian literature dead, he did not do so casually. He was not lamenting a temporary lull or the disappearance of a few magazines. He was naming what he saw as a fundamental failure of formation. There was, in his account, no stable literary life to grow into. Writing appeared intensely, briefly, […]

Novels often build toward closure, offering readers a resolution or tying loose ends, but in Dream Count, Adichie resists this expectation. She leaves you with crescendoed emotions, emphasising her central concern: the elusive nature of dreams as mediated through memory. This, alongside the novel’s interrogation of how privilege grants and strips women of agency, forms […]

Only the dead have seen the end of war- George Santayana Book: The Road to the Country, Author: Chigozie Obioma Publisher: Masobe Books, Lagos Year: 2024 The Nigeria civil war (1967-70) has produced so many literary works that it would be a surprise if definitive course (s) on the war is not already in our […]

From 252 entries down to 11 longlisted authors, The Nigeria Prize for Literature have pruned their list down to three finalists. This year’s panel of judges is chaired by Associate Professor Saeedat Bolajoko Aliyu of the Department of English, Kwara State University. Other members of the panel include Professor Stephen Mbanefo Ogene, Professor of Comparative […]

When we last went to Mother’s rural home in Gutu in the early months of 1997, the river still flowed, the buses still ran on time, our money still had value and I still cared about my family. I still cared about her. No, not Mother. Her. No two people were closer than me and […]

Following a milestone achievement for Mauritanian literature, Ibrahim Fawzy interviews novelist and journalist Ahmed Vall Dine. His novel, Danishmand, has secured a coveted spot on the 2025 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) shortlist, making Vall Dine the first writer from Mauritania to reach this stage since the prize was inaugurated in 2007. Danishmand is […]

Foluso Agbaje’s remarkable debut, The Parlour Wife, is likely the first novel many will read that focuses on the impact of the Second World War on an African population, with African characters squarely at its centre, and by an African author. The main setting is Lagos, the coastal city that was at the heart of […]

I know this city. I own this city. I know enough to teach you how to survive here. First: you should know this city will rip your legs apart and do you until you scream; I want to be anywhere else but here. The thing is, you’ll never leave, and you’ll never feel fine anywhere […]

Kamo held a braai at his house on Saturday. Tumi decided to go there dressed as Slick Rick, sporting an eye patch, thick dangling medallions and necklaces, trinkets, and all. It wasn’t a dress-up party or anything like that, he just felt like dressing up. And, because he had The Art of Storytelling playing on a loop […]

Three years after my divorce, on the very eve of my divorce anniversary, my sister Oge texted. At first, it was a call. I was in the kitchen staring at the fine china my last mother-in-law gave me on my wedding day. It was my ex-husband’s favorite—a set of sixteen plates and bowls and saucers […]